Wu Guorong was also Howqua (the first) and was founder of the family company. Howqua was the most important of the Hong merchants in the Thirteen Factories, head of the E-wo hong and leader of the Canton Cohong. He was once one of the richest men in the world. He became rich on the trade between China and the British Empire in the middle of the 19th century during the First Opium War. Perhaps the wealthiest man in China during the nineteenth century. 1830 Wu Guorong Chinnery painting